Protest leader survives ambush by gunmen

Published on Saturday 18 April 2009 20:03

A THAI protest leader shot by assailants after days of rioting in the capital is in stable condition and recovering rapidly, doctors said yesterday.

The brazen attack on Sondhi Limthongkul, leader of the "yellow-shirt" movement that helped topple Thailand's government three years ago, has raised political temperatures that had started to cool after rioting by rival "red-shirt" protesters was quelled last week.

Dr Thirapong Chaorenwit, acting director at Chulalongkorn Hospital, said Sondhi, who had bullet shards removed from his head,

"could now sit, walk and eat normally". An aide who was also hit in Friday's pre-dawn attack on Sondhi's car was also improving, though the driver was still in a serious condition.

Bangkok remained under emergency rule and security was tightened around Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who said the assassination attempt on Sondhi should not be an excuse for more conflict.

"We are concerned by the shooting obviously. We've got to restore order," Abhisit said. "We do not want this to be used to create a wider conflict."

But the attack was a new strain in long-standing tensions between backers of Abhisit's government and supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a military coup in 2006 and whose allies were removed from power by the courts last autumn.

Sondhi, an outspoken media tycoon and founder of the People's Alliance for Democracy, was ambushed on his way to work by gunmen in a pickup truck firing M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles. The car's windshield was riddled with bullet holes.